Why?
“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:4 NASB
Prayer – Okay, we get the idea that someone in leadership has to serve. We understand that diakonia must be evident in the lives of those who lead. The assembly of believers is a hierarchy of service. Its leaders are at the bottom, not the top. But why pray? What is the purpose of the leaders devoting themselves to prayer? The Greek verb is proskartereo. It means a great deal more than setting aside a few minutes a day to converse with the Almighty. The root verb is about steadfast endurance and forceful persistence. In some uses, the verb means “to be constantly at the ready.” Perhaps Paul had something like this in mind when he exhorted readers to pray without ceasing. It does not mean hiding away in the “prayer closet” all day long (but it could, if the circumstances demanded it). It means that whenever it is necessary and appropriate to call upon the Lord, in praise or pleading, leaders must be ready, willing and able to do so.
Why? Because this assembly does not move forward without the direction of the Spirit. It doesn’t take up noble causes because they are worthy of being done. It doesn’t do what’s next just because it is next. This assembly is the hands and feet of the Spirit and it must know what the Spirit of the Lord desires before it makes a move. It must be ready to serve the one true God, without hesitation, without reservation. Ruthless trust is a function of relationship communication. Prayer is the methodology. And if the stories of YHVH’s interaction with Israel are any guide, most of the time YHVH’s directions are completely counterintuitive. They are definitely not what we would choose on our own.
This raises a serious issue for most of us. We are not going to be chastised because we didn’t spend enough time praying. We are going to be disciplined because we acted without praying. We led from the front rather than behind. We didn’t follow because we didn’t ask (sounds like James, doesn’t it?). You see, biblical leadership is never about being out front. It is about walking behind the Master. In the wilderness, Israel had to learn to follow. When the leaders made decisions without consultation, disaster usually overtook them. We are in a wilderness. God alone knows the way. Action without prayer is futile. But action is our usual default. “But I have to do something!” No, you don’t. You have to do the one thing that God wants you to do, and that isn’t just anything you might think of. In fact, one measure of God’s direction might be this: Is it something you would never have though of?
Let’s be clear. Prayer is communication. It is two-way dialogue. Listening is praying. Acting without listening first is true folly. Maybe Paul’s “pray without ceasing” is really “be in a constant state of listening.” It seems that sin finds a foothold when we aren’t attentive to the small voice God provides.
The leaders of the assembly needed to do two things, both for the same reason. First, they needed to know what God already said in His instructional revelation. That is like being able to read the road signs along the journey. The written words tell me what to look for and what to look out for. They explain what it means to become human. Secondly, they needed to pray. With the road signs in view, they needed to listen to the voice of the Spirit and call upon the name of the Lord in order to accurately apply the words they studied. Head and heart together. There is no other way to lead.
What is today’s “action” step? Are you listening?
Topical Index: prayer, devote, proskartereo, Acts 6:4
” do the one thing God wants you to do …….. God loves our companionship 🙂
As important and insightful as anything you’ve ever
written. Thank you.
It’s quite obvious you’ve been keenly listening to Him!
“Pray without ceasing. “
Paul’s admonition always reminds me of Tevye’s constant dialogue with God in Fiddler of the Roof.
One of my professors from a Christian college showed us the top eight books on planting a church. He wrote the list of steps every the authors had made to grow your church. Some books would have around 5 steps, some around 10 steps, and some more.
After having us look and study for 3 minutes all the steps every book taught on how to plant a church the professor asked us what was missing from each author’s list? Many of us students took a guess or two but we were all wrong in our guessing. The answer was PRAYER. The professor pointed out in America we can plant and grow a church without inviting G-d.
I imagine most of the authors of these church planting guides would probably say, “Well, it [prayer] goes without saying – prayer is a part of EVERY step.” So then, why is prayer so intangible? Why does it seem (even in my own experience) that pray is something other than a concrete action?
I think you have a great question:)
It interesting to note that “steps” are also a barrier to the handicapped, the congregation.
“Acting without listening first is true folly.” Truer words were never spoken..and it is the one great fault and failure of the “church”…of anyone who is a follower of Christ. We have all been there and found guilty. In John 5: 19-21, he records this occasion with Jesus, “Therefore, Yeshua said this to them: “Yes, indeed! I tell you that the Son cannot do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does, the Son does too. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He does; and He will show Him even greater things than these so that you will be amazed.” Also John 8:28,29: “…of Myself I do nothing, but say only what the Father has taught Me. Also, the One who sent Me is still with Me; He did not leave Me to Myself, because I always do what pleases Him.” We really can’t do otherwise on this battlefield – this wilderness in which we live…but we obviously haven’t gotten that connection yet-we keep doing what we think best…..and it’s not working for us. What would this earth look like if we could get past the confusion the enemy trips us up with and focus on the Father and do as He instructs. It IS-all about relationship with Him and then with those around us as we listen..then move.
Father lead us…there is so much noise and confusion..keep us so connected to Your Heart – that in the quiet we can hear it’s sound.
This is so right on, Skip! My heart’s desire is to follow in this way more and more! I believe we will need to KNOW His voice in a moment and be able to act upon it. If we will be in a constant state of awareness where His Presence is concerned we will notice how He is training us. This is not easy to do as a leader when so many around you walk in the ways of the world! And I’m talking about His followers! But, oh, when you find the few, just one, who understands this!! I have come to the place where I am actually understanding the joy of YaH as I walk this narrow path. “Head and heart together”
Listening is praying.
I have thought so for a long time, but it’s so good to have someone else confirm it. When I was a teenager, my grandmother was my sounding board, patiently listening as I railed about how I was mistreated by teachers, peers, parents, sibling, the world in general. Grandma would nod and tell me that “it’s very hard to listen, while you are talking”. That’s true in every relationship, but most especially in our relationship with YHVH. Sin finds a foothold when we do not listen to the quiet voice, and we’ll never hear it, if we are talking.
We all know the carpenter’s adage to measure twice, cut once. We should modify it: talk once, listen twice.
“Head and heart together “, interestingly, that is how ‘Thought’ is written in Chinese – 想 with 心 the character of ‘heart’.
One cannot ‘think’ without the heart! How meaningful.
“Prayer is communication. It is two-way dialogue”, not so. In most ‘prayer’ meetings, it’s simply uttering as many words as you can, in one breath, with no waiting to hear the still small voice, nor is there confidentiality to someone’s problems. SAD!
Thank you, Ester! Thank you for bringing the oriental observation to us, and I really appreciated the character(!) study, too. I like all your deeply thoughtful comments, and get happy when I see you have written something.
As media access improves, I can find more online from the orient, and have been learning that there is a lot of ancient observation from the East that we lack in the West. Some of the most accurate observations I have been finding, from a medical standpoint, in particular, is that the East never truly ‘lost’ (lol) the understanding that the nephesh works together.
I have had an interest in eclectic medicine all my life, as it was often the only method available to the communities in which I was born and raised. That interest intensified as I got sicker and sicker with modern medicine offering little to nothing for my suffering. Alternative medicine at least gave me some reasonable ways to manage, and made more sense. I went for years to the International Herbal Conference held every year at Black Mountain, N.C. (the backyard, practically, of where my Mama’s family hails from), in an effort to try to understand my illness, and in so doing, was introduced to many alternative medical practices, including TCM.
In TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), the formulas typically include not only herbal remedies that address the physical symptoms of disease, which I often could recognize at least a part of because they looked similar to what I had been taught as a child, but also components that addressed stuff that I most assuredly did NOT recognize, that had more to do with the mental and spiritual states of the patient. I did not recognize the correlation until I began to be introduced to the spiritual roots of disease, and realized that the East was attempting to manage the spiritual, as well as the mental, states that it could clearly see were driving so many illnesses. Now, just because you take an herb that ramps down your stress levels, along with the herbs that can control the physical syndromes, such as thyroid or blood pressure issues, that can arise from that chronic stress, you still have not CURED the stress itself, although you have gotten one more step back up the creek to unraveling the source of the problem. Only by changing the false core beliefs that drive those fears are you going to be able to truly change the outcome of that fear, but the East does do a good bit better, as a whole, I think, in recognizing and diagnosing the problem, because it still has the understanding that you cannot separate the spiritual or the mental from the physical; and that would include the phenomenons that we in the West have only just started to ‘measure’ with our 5-senses-driven science.
Only recently have we developed the capacity to capture some of the messaging from the heart to the head, via theta brain wave activity, that precipitates the beta activity that generates an actual thought. We really DO originate thoughts from our heart region (that we can capture and make choices about)! The East (and that would include the Hebrew East of the Bible) just sits there and nods its head at us…
Hi Laurita, appreciate your reply! :- ) Just as I love Hebrew which is in many ways similar to Chinese, I am excited to see the Biblical connections. Both are pictographic, and reveals connections to the land.
Medicine is written thus- 藥 in the traditional way, and 药 in the simplified. Both depict ‘grass’/herb, balance as on both sides of the character with ‘white’/purity in the midst, and tree/wood beneath, all to reveal healing from the land with balance.
The simplified seems to have ‘lost’ some of the meanings, just as in the modern Hebrew.
You have gone through a wide area of experience, and benefiting from them, halleluYAH! Our ABBA is awesome! Shalom and love.
Hi Skip…one of the problems with prayer is, “how do we know when the Holy Spirit is really talking to us versus us just hearing what we WANT to hear?”
I remember in several TWs from the past, you’ve suggested that when a person says “the Holy Spirit told me this…”, we should run the opposite direction because we have no way of knowing if it’s true or not. 10 different people could hear 10 different things regarding the same subject.
Is there any way to know for sure??
If I may, Judi, just as it takes time to receive revelation and really getting it, if folks are truly hearing from ABBA, it takes a personal knowing of the attributes of ABBA, to discern what they have heard, even if the 10 agree, or “bear witness”, as in the famous case of the 12 going into the Promised Land, Num 13.
After 40 days, 10 came back with bad report though they said it was indeed flowing with milk and honey. Only 2, Caleb and Joshua came back with faithful reports.
But the folks accepted the majority report!
Caleb and Joshua was accredited for having the right spirit.
Actions have huge consequences; we need to take heed of what proceeds from our mouths/hearts. Hope that helps :- ) Shalom!
Be Berean First check whatever you think you hear against the revelation given to Moses. Then consult others who are following the Moses paradigm. Then double check. And pray that if you proceed God will swiftly correct what is not from Him.
Of course, this implies that all those who believe Torah is not applicable may not be reliable witnesses. Remember Peter on the rooftop. Even though God told him to eat, he said, “No.” This cannot be God’s will because it violates the revelation.